Ryan Grantham’s sentencing hearing continued Tuesday in the British Columbia Supreme Court with statements from the Crown about the young actor’s mental state and behavior before and after he killed his 64-year-old mother at their townhouse in Squamish.
Grantham, 24, shot Barbara Waite in the back of the head while she played the piano on March 31, 2020. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in March after being initially charged with first-degree murder.
On Monday, the court heard Grantham rehearse the murder and even shot videos that were shown in court, including a four-minute part shot in the hours after the murder in which he confessed to the murder and showed his mother’s dead body.
The next day, he packed his car with three pistols, ammunition, 12 Molotov cocktails, camping supplies and a map with directions to Rideau Cottage in Ottawa, and headed east with the idea of assassinating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Citing two psychiatric reports, Crown Prosecutor Michaela Donnelly said there was a consensus that Grantham was going through an intense period of clinical depression in the months leading up to the murder, while maintaining a well-functioning appearance.
He also felt the urge to commit violence and commit suicide, along with an escalating sense of self-hatred and guilt for his mother, potentially learning that he had stopped attending Simon Fraser University. Both reports say he had a violation of cannabis use.
Reports say Grantham decided to kill his mother to spare her from seeing the violence he intended to commit.
Donnelly said that while this may seem altruistic in motive, killing Waite is a deeply selfish act.
“Mr. Grantham was trying to save his mother from something he was going to do … It’s different from altruism,” Donnelly said.
“Heartbreaking breach of trust”
In aggravating circumstances, Donnelly said he had committed a “heartbreaking breach of trust” with the murder of Wait Grantham.
“Barbara Waite loved her son very much, she was an excellent parent and she thought there was no reason to be afraid of him,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly said the use of weapons required significant reprimands in sentencing, noting that Grantham was an experienced gun user and a former member of the weapons club. She stressed that in the months before the murder, he bought a new gun, although he is aware of his fight against the urge to commit violence and murder.
Donnelly said the circumstances of the case were closer to first-degree murder than unintentional, because on the day of the murder he had many opportunities to rethink as he loaded and unloaded his .22-caliber rifle and then sat on the steps of the town hall. for almost 15 minutes, deciding what to do.
Grantham left Squamish the day after the murder with his mother’s body, still where he fell, with the intention of driving 50 hours to Ottawa to kill Justin Trudeau. Before leaving, he tests a Molotov cocktail in a remote area.
He drove to Hope before turning to think he would instead commit an act of mass violence at SFU or elsewhere. He turned himself in to Vancouver police that night.
Grantham has been in movies and television since he was nine years old. His credits include television series shot by BC, including Riverdale, Supernatural and iZombie, as well as the films Diary of a Wimpy Kid and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence. The Crown seeks 17 to 18 years of parole.
The hearing is expected to end on Wednesday after defense statements.
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